@JackBNimble there's been a distinct lack of... I'll say "comradery" for lack of a better word... Among some of the most active members here lately, and I fear this election has made it more apparent. Folks seem unusually terrified of the wrong people getting their hands on a diamond.

@phantom42 It reminds me of the difference between a local election for city clerk and for school board. The former is a job with... in theory a bit of power, and in practice mostly a lot of drudgery. The latter is a job where OMG THAT EVIL PERSON IS GONNA RUIN MY KIDS THEY MUST DIIIIIIE!

I am so, SO tired of all of these posts about the SciFi election that try to pretend to not be about the SciFi election. Can SOMEONE please just make a post on Meta SciFi about the election wherein they come right out and say what they don't like about someone running, and then ask us all for a good therapist recommendation so they can get over it and we can go back to talking about whether Watership Down is on-topic or not? — Shog9 ♦1 min ago

@Null what high rep users have been leaving? I've seen that mentioned a few times, but I haven't seen what makes you believe that there's more than the usual rate of people just moving on because they have other priorities

@Keen - Well, Slytherincess, Tango and Thaddeus certainly fit the criteria. DVK has just quit the site, Jeff hasn't been around for a while either. That's certainly more than "1-2 users". — RichardJan 20 at 21:11

I think a lack of new canon has affected my activity on the site -- most of the new questions are either dupes or of poor quality. Poor quality questions are a huge turn off when it comes to SFF. Just curious why you're asking? (It's fine that you're asking, of course0

"Is this on topic? All the rabbits talk." "But that's just normal for that world, that's not fantasy!" "Talking animals aren't fantasy?" "No, not if thats just normal for the world!" "Guys. that one rabbit is psychic." "Oh. Ok then, on-topic."

Animal Farm feels non-fantasy to me but not because of the allegory, but because there's no magic or super-technology or time travel or other planets or anything; if real animals were slightly more intelligent they could do all that stuff

actually... probably shouldn't say this but whatever... I'll still try to figure this stuff out even if I don't get elected. I just have this feeling that having a moderator get behind that effort, even just encouraging people to participate, would help.

^-- why I want to be a mod, BTW

so, in short, I want to be a mod because I am naive and don't understand users.

@Ixrec There is also the fact that our scope already overlaps a number of other sites... while I know there's nothing explicitly wrong with that, I think we could avoid expanding our scope to include even more overlap :)

I know we normally aren't supposed to define what is or isn't on-topic by what other sites exist, but the fact that M&TV exists is a strong argument for excluding a lot of, shall we say, "whimsical" shows and movies that don't really "feel like fantasy"

@Ixrec the big problem there is not that they can't be discussed, questions asked and answered, in the context of a work of fiction... The big problem is that by doing so you immediately invite the hordes of trolls who will kill all of your remaining utility by driving out anyone who doesn't want to argue about religion all day.

@Gilles I'm not looking for someone to blame regarding the high rep users leaving, and like I said I'm not taking sides between them vs. the mods. But I have seen comments to the effect that the mods and CMs have treated them badly (at least, that is what they perceive).

@null - Given my treatment at the hands of the site's Community Managers and moderators, I have seriously considered leaving/going into exile. The jury is still out on that one, frankly. — RichardJan 12 at 17:07

@Gilles I understand that they are biased. My point is that I'm hoping to discuss them privately with the current mods to better understand all that has happened (and I'd need to be a mod to do that). I would probably agree with the mods' actions anyway, but hopefully I could act as a bit of a mediator between them and the current mods to ease the situation a bit.

I don't have a problem losing a couple of users who are too disruptive, and I don't think we should change our behavior to accommodate them, no matter how valuable they are as contributors. Quoting my questionnaire answer: > Ultimately, if the user continues to cause strife I would meet with the other mods to decide what to do. Although the loss of any user is regrettable -- especially a user who produces many valuable answers -- there eventually comes a point where such a user might do more harm than good.

FWIW, this one's always in the list because it's a perpetual problem. If you're a moderator for long enough, you'll have to face it - and probably more than a few times. Showing spammers and drive-by trolls the boot is easy; taking aside someone you respect and trying to convince them they have to stop... That's something I think just about everyone struggles with, at least a little bit.

During the primary phase of SE elections the candidate pool is narrowed to 10 nominations based on a free-form up/down voting system much like answers. However the vote math system has some funky stuff that we'd probably be better off without like showing the vote tallies as:
floor ( upvotes - d...